NEW ORLEANS — COVID-19 vaccination efforts are picking up, with more mass vaccination sites opening their doors.
There are thousands of appointments still available in the New Orleans area Friday and Saturday.
Wednesday, 2,200 people were vaccinated at the Shrine on Airline. This Friday and Saturday, Ocshner Health will administer about 5,000 more shots. And as of Thursday night, there were still about one-thousand appointments still open. Those slots are expected to fill up fast.
“Each mass event we do, we’ve been able to use all of the vaccine that we bring with us or that we put on the schedule,” said Dawn Pevey.
She is the CEO of the Systems Centers of Excellence and Service Lines at Ochsner Health, and leads the mass vaccination effort.
She says the mass vaccination site at the Shrine on Airline can get one car through every two and a half minutes, plus a 15-minute wait time after the shot.
Appointments are only open for booking a few days before, she says, because vaccine supply varies week to week.
“When you open them the week of, it’s just going to take a couple of days for communication to get out. We understand during the week, many people work. And so, we’ve been able to fill them. Our team’s done a really good job of pushing the message,” said Pevey.
She said, “We’ve done over 200 thousand vaccines and we’re just thrilled to be part of the solution and bring hope to people, so we can all work together to get back to whatever our new sense of normal is going to be for the future.”
There are appointments open at the Morial Convention Center site, too. LCMC Health says several thousand people have already signed up for Friday and Saturday, but there’s room for more.
And soon, 5-thousand eligible people of the 15-thousand on the citywide waitlist will soon be paired with a shot.
You are currently eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine in Louisiana if you are:
- Older than 65
- Older than 55 with certain health conditions
- Work in Healthcare or as a first responder
- Pregnant
- K-12 teacher or Day Care Staff
Appointment slots open up at the beginning of the week, once the health systems know definitively how many doses they’re getting.
To register for an appointment at the Shrine on Airline, go to myochsner.org or call 844-888-2772.
To register for an appointment at the Morial Convention Center, go to lcmchealth.org/vaccine/ or call 504-290-5200.
You do not need to be an existing patient of either health system.
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